Drawing at Castle Gardens- comparing on-site and studio drawing

I’m getting into the habit of drawing the ‘sounds’ of birds whenever I can and its usually when I have a few minutes spare before work. Castle Gardens in Leicester is a lovely haven for wildlife and a great spot for on-site drawing.

The drawing to the left was done in the studio from a sound recording taken in January at the park and the drawing to the right was created on-site in March.

There is a noticeable difference between the composition of a drawing created on-site (listening to birdsong), when compared with a studio drawing using sound recordings of birdsong. When Im drawing on-site the drawing is responsive and spontaneous and will capture what Ive heard (and not what Ive missed), the lines and symbols are more than likely to represent a mixture of bird vocalisation rather than a clear symbol for an individual bird as a studio drawing would, where I have the opportunity to pause the recording and identify each bird. This method of studio drawing is more analytical and repeated listening and drawing offers the chance to create more spontaneous arrangements of drawing using selected symbols for birdsong and calls.